Virginia Democrats file emergency appeal to US Supreme Court over redistricting

WASHINGTON (7News) — Virginia Democrats have filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn the Virginia Supreme Court’s ruling, which invalidated the partisan gerrymander that narrowly passed in the April special election.

The appeal comes just days after Friday’s 4-3 ruling by the Commonwealth’s high court, which found the vote invalid on procedural grounds. Democrats had signaled their intention to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court when they filed a motion Friday asking the Virginia Justices to stay their mandate while the case was under appeal.

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The Virginia court ruled, in an opinion written by Justice D. Arthur Kelsey, that the state’s Democratic-led legislature violated procedural requirements when it placed the constitutional amendment on the ballot to authorize the mid-decade redistricting.

“This violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void,” the court said in its opinion.

Democrats argued unsuccessfully to Virginia’s Supreme Court that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that, even if early voting is underway, an election does not happen until Election Day itself.

This argument was echoed in the dissent written by Chief Justice Cleo Elaine Powell.

“Today the majority has broadened the meaning of the word ‘election,’ as used in the Virginia Constitution, to include the early voting period. This is in direct conflict with how both Virginia and federal law define an election,” she wrote. “I respectfully disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the General Assembly did not strictly comply with Virginia’s constitutional requirements. For this reason, I must respectfully dissent.”

Had the measure been allowed to go through, it would have eliminated all but one Republican district in Virginia, giving Democrats a 10 to one advantage in the Commonwealth’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The U.S. Supreme Court will now have to decide whether to hear the case. The Supreme Court, historically, tries to avoid second-guessing state courts’ interpretations of their own constitutions. In 2023, it turned down a request by North Carolina Republicans to overrule a state Supreme Court decision that blocked the GOP’s congressional map.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.